When Freeze finally plays Spurrier, he may be favored

Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze speaks to media at his third SEC media day since taking over the team in 2012.

Have you noticed that South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier is not taking shots at Ole Miss anymore?

Two years ago at the Southeastern Conference Media Days, Spurrier was aiming at 2011 SEC East champion Georgia's schedule when he hit Ole Miss right between the eyes with crossfire.

Georgia had won the East in 2011 with a 7-1 record to South Carolina's 6-2 mark even though South Carolina beat Georgia. The Gamecocks' two losses were to SEC West teams Auburn and Arkansas while it was 5-0 in the East. Georgia, meanwhile, enjoyed a 27-13 win over Ole Miss, which finished 2-10 overall that season and 0-8 in the SEC in the last year of Houston Nutt.

"If I made the schedule, Georgia would be playing LSU, and we'd be playing Ole Miss," Spurrier said in reference to his upcoming 2012 schedule at the time. He would lose that year at LSU.

Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze was at his first SEC Media Days in 2012 and was not amused with Mr. Spurrier. In fact, he fired back.

"We do play them in 2013," he said. "I will circle that one and hopefully change his perspective of Ole Miss football."

The 2013 game never happened, however, as the SEC erased games on the schedule by patching together two stop gap "bridge" schedules in 2012 and '13 because of the addition of Texas A&M and Missouri into the league for the 2012 season.

And that may have been fortunate for Spurrier. His team was 11-2 last year with a 6-2 mark in the SEC, but Ole Miss finished 8-5 and 3-5 in the SEC itself last year with an upset of LSU after improving to 7-6 and 3-5 in 2012.

The Rebels return 15 starters for the 2014 season, including nine on defense and one of the league's best returning quarterbacks in senior Bo Wallace. So consider yourself more lucky than superior, Spurrier. Based on pre-expansion rotations, South Carolina would have played Ole Miss this season as well, but that game was also erased from the schedule as the league's bridge scheduling finally ended with a permanent schedule this spring that remains nothing short of ridiculous.

The SEC has grown to 14 teams, but its members only play eight league games a season - just one over the half mark. So the conference office gets the money from the new markets in Missouri and Texas, but its members can take it easy against the likes of South Alabama (Mississippi State opponent) Presbyterian (Ole Miss opponent) and Sam Houston State (LSU opponent), among others, instead of playing a less feminine nine- or 10-game schedule and letting all teams see all teams in a four-year span. Thus, there are huge gaps between games between some of the schools as the SEC has also stubbornly clung to its permanent East-West games. The much anticipated Spurrier-Freeze I duel, for example, will not happen until 2018 at Ole Miss. Spurrier-Freeze II is on the books for 2025 in Columbia, S.C.

Spurrier will be 80 in 2025. He will be 73 in 2018. It is almost a certainty that Spurrier will never coach against Freeze, who will only be 56 in 2025.

And at the rate Freeze is recruiting, Ole Miss could well be favored to beat South Carolina in 2018, if not 2015 if it was on the schedule.

Freeze laughed on Thursday at the SEC Media Days about his initiation to the SEC two years ago - Spurrier style.

"One good thing about Media Days is Coach Spurrier isn't talking about Ole Miss as much, wanting to play us every year," he said in his opening comments.

"Maybe that's a good thing. Why blame Steve for saying that? I've said that all along. At that point, who wouldn't have wanted to play Ole Miss?"

Not only is Freeze growing into the Ole Miss job and winning, he has learned how to pretend he's kidding around while wielding a dagger - the SEC Media Days special.

"I'm thrilled that I can call him (Spurrier) one of my colleagues and friends in the coaching business," Freeze said. "I tell people all the time of the support that I've received from the coaches in this league.

"It's been phenomenal. He and Les Miles have been tremendous to me in helping me through my first couple years."

Why yes, Spurrier motivated Freeze without ever playing a game, and Miles admitted himself that he did not prepare his team well last year before a 27-24 loss at Ole Miss that may be Freeze's greatest victory.

Freeze and Spurrier may forever avoid a game, but Freeze is due in Tiger Stadium on Oct. 25.

And this time, Miles will think twice about not having his team ready and "helping" Freeze through his first couple of years.

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When Freeze finally plays Spurrier, he may be favored

Have you noticed that South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier is not taking shots at Ole Miss anymore?